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Power grab and overreach: ADC and Osama Siblani

ADC-Michigan is facing a hostile takeover of its presence and role in the Arab American community. It’s Osama
Siblani- the publisher of the so-called
Arab American News and the treasurer and the de facto president of AAPAC, the Arab American Political Action Committee.

Siblani is out to grab
power and expand the reach of his tentacles into all the affairs of the Arab
Americans of Michigan via the affairs of a certain percentage of the 8% of the Arab Americans of
Michigan who happen to live in the Dearborn area.

From day 1 you could see Siblani pouncing on ADC
seeing in it as an easy prey.

The scandal broke from his office. The conspirators and their Palestinian moustache Rashida
met in his office. His pontificating to the media, his infamous ADC “dropped
the ball on us” happened at his office. Rashida’s sidekick and # 2 public face
of the manufactured scandal is his employee Rana Abbas.

The scandal, incidentally, broke out only months
after Rana Abbas started working for Imad’s “friend” Osama and only a few
months after Rashida began serving on the board of Nabih Ayad’s custom- made ACRL, the Arab Civil Rights League. Rana Abbas served for a few months as the executive director for the ACRL. Nabih Ayad is active with Osama's AAPAC with one of his associates holding a key position in AAPAC.

It is a very small world indeed.

And all the roads lead to Osama.

The noisy and ostentatious resignations from the
advisory board were by members who are all connected to Osama Siblani.

The funny thing- or unfunny thing- is that Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit
Free Press has been writing fluff/filler articles over these board resignations as if
they are resignations from the Federal Reserve of New York and will end
up moving the stock market and global finance. I am sure the citizens of Michigan are eager to know and are losing sleep over who resigned and who stayed on the advisory board of the ADC-Michigan.

To those who don’t know the organizational structure
of ADC here is a basic description:

ADC national has an office in Michigan headed by a
regional director accountable to ADC national which in turn is accountable to
its national board.

ADC has a chapter in Detroit. The chapter has a
board elected by the chapter members. It is separate from the office that was
headed by Imad until the monkey business of Rashida, Osama and secondary players began. I was the chair of the board at one time and a member at other times.

Imad has formed an advisory board for ADC Michigan
office. The membership is by invitation. The board membership, highly diverse as to national background and religious background, includes
businesspeople, lawyers, judges, doctors, etc. The members are chosen to help
advise the organization. The Judges’ Night, a great idea of Imad which turned
out to be a remarkable success, is run by the office assisted by the advisory
board.

This is the advisory board of which I am a member
and like the majority of the other members have not resigned from. A small part of the reasons for not resigning is that I am not a friend of Osama.But we are not in the news and are not newsworthy to Niraj Warikoo.

Going back to Mr. Siblani, ADC Michigan and BRIDGES.

BRIDGES, a law enforcement-community body, that was established
right after the 9/11 attacks by Imad along with the head of the FBI of Detroit
at the time, Special agent in Charge John Bell, meets regularly to discuss community issues. Imad co
chaired it with the US Attorney for the Eastern District for the longest time-
that is until "the man and woman"- made scandal broke out. The government chair
has changed over the years but not the community co-chair, Imad. Everyone
understood that BRIDGES is the creation of ADC Michigan under the leadership of
Imad. Through the years other organizations and ambitious individuals tried to
wrest the leadership of BRIDGES from Imad and ADC but Imad was able to
skillfully and bluntly nip the attempts in the bud.

BRIDGES has been recognized as a model to be emulated in other communities.
It has been the subject of discussions and studies nationally and
internationally. Imad was invited to national and international conferences to speak about BRIDGES.

That helps understand why Osama wants to take
control of BRIDGES.

At the last meeting of BRIDGES held this past September there was a confrontation between Abed Ayoub from
ADC national and the Osama group because Osama wanted to inherit ADC. Osama'sthinking is that with Imad not present and Abed Ayoub young and polite that ADC is an organization that he can
bully and control as if it is the Baraachit club- no offense to that club and
its members.

Osama should not be allowed to manipulate an organization that represents Arab Americans of all national backgrounds and religious and sectarian affiliation. There are many reasons key among them is that he is seen as a polarizing and divisive figure. In the minds of important constituencies in the Arab and Muslim communities, he and his paper have devolved from being uniting forces to divisive forces. The extent of the change is debatable but the sentiment is real and is there and it is not something that Osama and his paper have done anything to remedy despite advice from many people who meant well.

THEREFORE Osama of ALL people knows that he does not
speak in the name of the Arab American community, in Dearborn and Detroit, let alone in Michigan, the Great Lakes states or the whole 50 states, the way ADC and its people do. Let’s be
blunt. If there is a community crisis, let’s say sectarian for example, Osama
and his paper are seen as part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Simply
put- Osama should not be allowed to do to ADC and BRIDGES what he has done to
the Arab American News and AAPAC- and to his old self.

Osama Siblani

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